Review: Eccentric Miniatures Base Conversion

Adaptors are always nice.

Just a quick one today for the new year. I'm going to try to get through my backlog of posts that I meant to write, so we're going to go from no posts to a post every two days or so for a while. For the 3 of you who are actually still following this blog (hi Mom! Just kidding, even my mom won't follow this), brace yourselves.

So today we have a nifty little kit from Eccentric Miniatures. Or, more specifically, 

Basics: Drybrushing, Washes, and Bases

Two of the most important techniques to learn as a beginning painter or aspiring speed painter are drybrushing and washing. Today we'll look at how it applies to very textured bases. In this case, they are skull bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

Drybrushing involves loading a brush with paint, removing most of it with a paper towel, and then raking it across the model, catching only the raised portions with pigment.

Washing uses watered down paint (the wash) that is applied liberally to the model where it will seek the deep recesses of the model and also provide a general tint to the other surfaces.
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WIP: Sanguinary Guard

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! I am sincerely thankful for many things this year. My family, my employer, and my friends are the top three "items" that receive my gratitude without condition. But I'd like to share the thing that I am absolutely the MOST grateful for at this time. I am most thankful that in about 30 minutes, I will actually be finished painting these nightmares:

Are you diggin' the old school Vindi?

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Speed Painting Objective Markers

This weekend was very, very busy for my two young daughters, so consequently, it was very, very busy for me. This, combined with my Armory Primer debacle, left me no time to work on my Blood Angels, but I wanted to take advantage of my small bit of momentum somehow. I looked around my office and found a set of these:

They are objective markers made by Secret Weapon Miniatures in their "Alien Infestation" scheme. I found them six to a bag at a local game store. I don't see them being sold on the Secret Weapon site, but I will update this post if I find them there.

They are, in a word, beautiful. I thought they'd make a great set of objectives for my Nids, but I'd forgotten about them until this week. Since the time I purchased them, I've had a bit of philosophical redirection. For objective markers, I don't feel the need to make them too "realistic"...they need to be markers, for heaven's sake.

So here's where the speed painting comes in. I washed the pieces in warm soapy water, and then I sprayed them with Army Painter bone-color primer. Total time, 5 minutes.

Then for each of the three pairs, I washed them with Asurmen Blue, Leviathan Purple, and Thraka Green, respectively. Then, for each open-petaled pod, I based that area in Vallejo Squid Pink. Then, before the pink could dry, I dropped Baal Red wash in each pod. Total time, 10 minutes.

That's right, 15 minutes for all six of them. And how do they look? See for yourself. Click on any image to enlarge.

I really dig how these turned out. Do you?